Combination mobile camera and communication devices, which comprise a wireless, hand-held telephone or computer and a digital camera in the same physical package, are known in the current marketplace. Cellular phones, PDAs, and BlackBerry® devices each offer packages that allow users to capture images and upload these images to a network such as the Internet. At present, many camera phones use marginal imaging components to take and upload still and moving images. The bandwidth required to upload information of this type tends to be a factor limiting the capture and transfer of quality images. Consequently, there is little impetus to incorporate within these devices more complex camera assemblies that are capable of producing high resolution images. However, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and other emerging communications technologies will soon make it possible to send high resolution digital images and live video over wireless communication networks.
Many existing mobile camera devices use a simple CMOS camera device located near, but facing away from the display screen, earpiece, or keypad of the device. This configuration allows a user to simultaneously face the image subject and see images on the display screen. Thus, the optical axis of many existing mobile camera communication devices extends in a direction perpendicular to the keyboard or display screen. This direction is aligned with the depth or thickness of the device, which is typically substantially smaller than the height and width of the device. Thus, whether the device is a clamshell design or a one-piece construction, the depth of the device in the direction of the optical axis typically limits the use of substantial optics to enhance image quality. Moveable lenses of the type that allow for wide angle or zoomed images that are typically found in conventional film and digital cameras may be too bulky to fit within the limited thickness of mobile communication devices. As a result, electronic or digital zoom operations have historically been the only zoom function available in these types of devices. Electronic and digital zoom operations typically require interpolation and other manipulation of image data, resulting in degraded images. For quality images, optical zoom is preferable to electronic zoom.
Certain mobile phone devices incorporate a camera into the hinge of a clamshell design so that the optical axis of the camera is oriented in a direction aligned with the width of the phone. However, these devices do not take full advantage of the additional space provided by the width of the device to incorporate additional optical components such as lenses, mirrors, or prisms. Consequently, even though a high quality CCD camera may be incorporated into these devices, the ability to zoom, focus, take wide angle shots, and other optical functions is still limited by fixed optics.